I toed the line for another edition of the beautiful
Squantum 5 mile road race, start and finish in Marina Bay (Quincy), which was on
a Wednesday evening instead of the Thursdays of the past. I had the company of
two through the Bellevue Hill at 1.5 miles. The younger of such, Nick Ryan, in
bright orange Saucony racing flats appeared to be floating along while I lead
them through mile 1 in 5:26. At the top of the hill, I would have to reel in
Nick who would gain a few feet. After the hills were done half way through the
course, Nick and I were matched even and working together so to speak. I was
cutting tangents like a veteran and Nick was usually on the opposite side of
the street, not knowing the course and the upcoming turn. I was a hurting unit
by the time Nick started to pull away after 3.5 miles heading back into Marina
Bay. He gapped me by 8 seconds into mile 4 and I saw an unfortunate 6:01 split
on my Garmin. Ouch! I was worried more about getting caught by the 3rd
place runner who I could occasionally hear as I was afraid to look back. With less
than a mile to go, I noticed the distance between Nick and I was not expanding.
I reluctantly dug down and tried to close the gap in the last 400 meters.
My
body was really exhausted and was fighting the failed attempt of a surge. My
tank was beyond empty. I closed it down to 4 seconds taking second place behind
Nick (29:31) with a time of 29:35, over a minute slower than the Bobby Doyle 5
mile on Sunday. I caught up with Nick 5 minutes later after drinking a water
and recognizing the top 10 finish up. He is only 21 (almost half my age) and
had a personal best under 28 for a 5 mile race earlier this year. The night was
capped off over on the upper deck of the Waterclub as the sun set. Martin
Hanley, race director of the James Joyce Relay, mc’d the awards. I picked up a
marathon sports gift certificate. I got a chance to thank JJ Larner for the “race
of champions” comp entry and opportunity to race another Squantum 5.
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| Boston City Skyline looking left from Squantum - about 1.4 miles into the course |
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| Marina Bay with UMass Boston beyond |
Hi Jim, congrats on your great run. Not much you can do against a young gun like Nick (a friend of mine). You did much better against him than I ever could have dreamed of. The Squantum 5k offers great views as the pictures show, although there is so much more than the view. The atmosphere, the ambiance at the Waterclub and the views of the city make this a must attend race. Thanks for the post and the website. This is great!!!
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